Top Java Developers Offer Advice to Students

Eleven leading Java developers -- from Joshua Bloch to Tor Norbye to Chet Haase -- offer advice to students about how to become better developers.

Got Advice for Students?

If so, check out my article[2] on java.sun.com where 11 leading Java developers -- from Joshua Bloch to Tor Norbye to Chet Haase -- offer advice about how to become better developers. I've excerpted and consolidated useful advice from previous interviews.

Here's a brief sampling:

Josh Bloch:

"Write lots of code. Have fun with it! Collaborate with people who are more experienced than you and learn from them. Join an open source project. Code reviews are a great way to learn."

Tor Norbye:

"Learn to use your tools. And I don't mean just enough to get by. I mean really learn how to use your tools. Become an expert user..."

... Learn how to make trade-offs....

... Finally, learn the platform APIs."

Chet Haase:

"Take the math courses you need. It doesn't need to be higher-level stuff, but I've leaned heavily on linear algebra and some amount of calculus for a lot of what I've done."

Rags Srinivas:

"Don't be overwhelmed by the language or the platform. If you break it down, the basics of the language are based on object-oriented programming, threading, concurrency, and event-driven programming. It's necessary to become a master of these concepts since the rest of your career will depend on this foundation."

Cay Horstmann:

"First, don't panic. When students first see the API with thousands of classes, they despair. I used to be able to tell them, That's OK, at least the language itself is very simple.'"

So check it out if you want to read the wisdom of others, or pass on your own in the comments section.